Facebook for BlackBerry version 1.9.0.28 is out

Research in Motion has released Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones 1.9.0.28. The company asked its users to provide feedback for the previous version, 1.9.0.20, and after investigating reports of missed notifications and difficulty logging into the Facebook app, it has begun pushing out a new version. Here’s a brief changelog for the new version, which is clearly a bug fix release:

• Email Notification Improvements: previously, if you turned on email notifications on Facebook.com, logged out, and logged back into Facebook on your BlackBerry smartphone, your e-mail notification settings would be turned off. This issue has been fixed.
• Background Polling: Previously, if you set the background polling option to Never, then logged out and logged back into Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones, the polling setting would be set to 10 minutes instead of Never. This issue has been fixed.
• Photo Upload Freeze Fix: Previously, users may have seen their BlackBerry smartphone freeze when sending a photo to Facebook from the Media folder on their BlackBerry smartphone. This issue has been fixed.

To get the new version, follow these steps:

1. Open Facebook on your BlackBerry smartphone
2. Press the Menu key (the one with the BlackBerry logo) and select Options
3. Scroll down and select the option Check for Upgrade Now

I just tried this and I did indeed receive the following message with Yes and No options: “New Facebook software update available. Install now?” Clicking Yes redirected me to a blackberry.com website with a Download Now button. Hitting that in turn took me to a BlackBerry App World page without a download button. I quickly found out why.

“It may take a few hours for the updated version of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones to appear in both BlackBerry App World and when you initiate a ‘Check for Upgrade Now’ within Facebook on your BlackBerry smartphone,” a RIM spokesperson said in a statement. “Check again in a few hours if the upgrade isn’t available to you right now.”

Apparently 1.9.0.28 is not yet available for me. If you own a BlackBerry, try the steps above and let me know how it goes for you.